10 Must-Watch Action Shows To Binge While You Wait for 'Reacher' Season 5

Published Oct 1, 2026, 8:08 AM EDT

Christine is a freelance writer for Collider with two decades of experience covering all types of TV shows and movies spanning every genre. With a particular affinity for dramas, true crime, sitcoms, and thrillers, if it's a top TV show, Christine has likely watched it and is eager to share her thoughts. When she's not furiously writing away, you can find her enjoying the next binge obsession with a glass of wine in front of the TV.

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If you love Reacher and you can't wait until Season 5, which is currently filming (the show has been renewed for a sixth as well), you have plenty of shows to fill your time until that release. Reacher delivers high action, a compelling protagonist, and exciting new guest characters every season, along with an intriguing new case. This is a formula that you'll find across many other shows just like it, including ones from the days of streaming and network shows from long before streaming took over.

There are great action shows with a similarly interesting protagonist who is fiercely smart and can kick butt. They range from featuring government officials to agents, officers, and other characters who do what they do because they feel it's their mission. Every show is available to stream, and they range from one with nine seasons to a brand-new show with just a single season so far.

'The Night Agent' (2023–Present)

Image via Netflix

If you especially love the high action, political intrigue, and epic fight scenes in Reacher, The Night Agent is the perfect intermission watch. The Netflix action thriller, which has delivered three seasons so far and will end with its fourth, has a lot of similarities to Reacher. Peter Sutherland (Gabriel Basso) is a much younger FBI agent without the same level of knowledge and experience as Jack Reacher (Alan Ritchson). But he's just as smart and as much a loner as Reacher is.

In both shows, the men end up teaming with someone they're trying to save and encounter a villain they need to fight. There are increasingly complex stories, the shows equally improving with each passing season. The Night Agent is a perfect action thriller to binge that starts corny in the beginning but matures to become a thoughtfully written, better acted story in its later seasons, just like Reacher.

'Ride or Die' (2026)

Image via Prime Video

Though it was cancelled after just one season, despite the great reviews, Ride or Die is still a fun show that will serve as a nice interlude between seasons of Reacher. The show puts a badass female at the center of the plot, and she's not necessarily the hero. Judith Burton (Hannah Waddingham) is a lethal assassin who goes on the run with her best friend Deborah Claybourne (Octavia Spencer) when they get caught up in a murderous mess. But Debbie has no idea who her friend actually is and what is going on.

Ride or Die is as much a story about enduring female friendship as it is an action-packed tale about an enemy chasing down a woman with a checkered past and an even more complicated present. The action-adventure comedy has elements of all three genres. It will remind you of Reacher at points while remaining its own distinct story with a much heavier female presence.

'Tracker' (2024–Present)

Image via CBS

It's easy to see why so many people draw comparisons between Reacher and Tracker, both with iconic leads from books that became big TV franchises. This CBS network series is about lone wolf survivalist Colter Shaw (Justin Hartley) who travels across the U.S. in his Airstream trailer taking on new cases wherever he goes. Sound familiar? The difference is that Colter works with a remote team, and he focuses entirely on missing persons. If someone goes missing and the family members and friends don't trust that the police will do anything about it quickly enough, they hire Colter because he always gets the job done.

There's the same level of action, danger, and intrigue in Tracker as there is in Reacher, though there isn't as much violence, sexuality, or nudity since it's a network show. But the protagonists have a lot of the same qualities, including tremendous physical strength and fighting skills, as well as high intellect and perceptive abilities. With three seasons and a fourth coming this fall, there's lots of content to keep you entertained with Tracker while waiting for Reacher Season 5.

'Jack Ryan' (2018–2023)

Image via Prime Video

Touching on the intersection of crime, action, and politics, Jack Ryan, also known as Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan, stars John Krasinski as the title character, a CIA analyst who leaves the comfort of his desk job to head out onto the field when he discovers strange bank transfers that trace back to an Islamic extremist. That's the plot of Season 1 and each season, much like Reacher, takes Ryan to a new destination with a new case involving corruption, terrorists, cartels, and political warfare.

It sounds like Ryan and Reacher could easily exist in the same universe, the two characters once again sharing fighting prowess, backgrounds working for the military (Ryan was formerly a Marine), and incredible smarts. There are 30 episodes across four seasons to dive into in this show, which is also available to stream on Amazon Prime Video.

Collider Exclusive · Action Hero Quiz Which Action Hero Would Be
Your Perfect Partner? Rambo · James Bond · Indiana Jones · John McClane · Ethan Hunt

Five legends. Five completely different ways of getting out alive — with style, with muscle, with charm, with luck, or with a plan so intricate it probably shouldn't work. Ten questions will reveal which action hero was built to have your back.

🎖️Rambo

🍸James Bond

🏺Indiana Jones

🔧John McClane

🎭Ethan Hunt

FIND YOUR PARTNER →

01

You're dropped into a dangerous situation with no warning. What do you need most from a partner? The first few seconds tell you everything about who belongs beside you.

ASomeone who already has three contingency plans running and is calmly working through all of them. BSomeone who reads the terrain instinctively and knows exactly how to use it against the enemy. CSomeone who keeps their nerve and their sense of humour when everything is falling apart. DSomeone who knows the history of wherever we are and what we're walking into. ESomeone with the right contact, the right cover identity, and the right exit already arranged.

NEXT QUESTION →

02

You have to get somewhere dangerous, fast. How do you travel? How you get there is half the mission.

AOn foot through terrain no one else would attempt — I move where vehicles can't follow. BOn a motorcycle, a cargo plane, or anything else that gets me there before I think too hard about it. CIn something that belongs to someone else — borrowed, stolen, or improvised under fire. DFirst class, with a cover identity and a gadget that does something I won't explain until it's needed. EBy whatever means are available — I've driven, flown, and once arrived by camel. The destination matters, not the method.

NEXT QUESTION →

03

You're pinned down and outnumbered. What does your ideal partner do? This is when you find out what someone is really made of.

ADisappears into the environment, flanks them silently, and ends it before I've reloaded. BCracks a one-liner, grabs a fire extinguisher or a chair, and improvises something that somehow works. CProduces a gadget specifically designed for this exact scenario and uses it with infuriating precision. DPulls out a whip, a pistol, and an archaeological insight that somehow gets us out alive. ENeutralises the threat with maximum efficiency and minimum words — they were already three moves ahead.

NEXT QUESTION →

04

The mission is paused. You have one evening to decompress. What does your partner suggest? Who someone is when the pressure drops is who they actually are.

AA bar with terrible lighting, cold beer, and absolutely no questions about feelings. BThe finest restaurant in the city, a bottle of something expensive, and a conversation that is equal parts brilliant and exhausting. CA local dig site, a museum after hours, or a long story about why that particular artefact matters to human civilisation. DPizza. Bad TV. Falling asleep halfway through a movie neither of you were watching anyway. EA debrief that turns into three hours of contingency planning that somehow becomes the most fun you've had all week.

NEXT QUESTION →

05

How do you prefer your partner to communicate mid-mission? Good communication is the difference between partners and a liability.

APrecise and minimal — tell me what I need to know and nothing else. Every word has a cost. BDeadpan and dry — keeping it light keeps me sharp, even when everything is on fire. CEnthusiastic and slightly chaotic — but always with useful information buried somewhere in the noise. DCalm and controlled through an earpiece, with a plan that covers every variable I haven't thought of yet. EBarely at all — silence is a language and they speak it fluently.

NEXT QUESTION →

06

Your enemy is powerful, well-resourced, and has the upper hand. How should your partner approach them? The approach to the enemy defines the partnership.

AInfiltrate their inner circle, learn everything, and dismantle them from inside out before they know we're there. BStudy the historical pattern — every villain of this type has a weakness written somewhere in the past. CGet them talking. The more they monologue, the more time I have to figure out how to beat them. DGo through them. Directly. With as much force as the terrain allows. EFind the one thing they haven't accounted for — there's always one thing — and make sure we're holding it.

NEXT QUESTION →

07

Things go badly wrong and you're captured. What do you trust your partner to do? Who someone is when you need them most is the only thing that matters.

ACome in alone, quietly, and get me out before anyone knows they were there. BHave already been working on the extraction since the moment I disappeared — the plan is already running. CCome in loud, come in fast, and worry about the collateral damage later — I'd do the same for them. DUse every resource, every contact, and bend every rule until I'm out — they don't leave people behind. ECharm their way in somehow, bluff through the hard part, and still manage to look good doing it.

NEXT QUESTION →

08

What does your ideal partner bring to the table that you couldn't replace? A great partner fills the gap you didn't know you had.

ATechnology that shouldn't exist yet and the training to use it under any conditions. BSurvival instinct so refined it borders on supernatural — and the scars to prove it's been tested. CKnowledge of history, language, and culture that makes them invaluable in places where force is useless. DThe ability to walk into any room in the world and immediately become the most trusted person in it. EStubbornness that refuses to accept a situation is hopeless — and the improvisational skill to back it up.

NEXT QUESTION →

09

Every partnership has a cost. Which of these can you live with? No one comes without baggage. The question is whether you can carry it together.

AA partner who never fully switches off — always watching exits, always calculating threats, even at dinner. BA partner who gets the job done brilliantly but has the emotional availability of a locked filing cabinet. CA partner who makes everything ten times more complicated than it needs to be — but who always comes through. DA partner who gets personally attached to every relic, ruin, and artefact we encounter, which slows everything down. EA partner who was not built for this and knows it — but shows up anyway, every time, without being asked.

NEXT QUESTION →

10

It's the final moment. Everything is on the line. What do you need from your partner right now? The last question is the most honest one.

AOne line. Absolutely dry. Delivered like the world isn't ending. Then we move. BNothing said at all — just a look that means we both already know what has to happen. CA plan I don't fully understand that somehow accounts for everything, delivered in thirty seconds flat. DA piece of historical context that reframes the entire situation and tells us exactly what to do next. ESomeone who steps forward instead of back — because that's who they've always been.

REVEAL MY PARTNER →

Your Partner Has Been Assigned Your Perfect Partner Is…

Your answers have pointed to one action hero above all others. This is the person built to have your back — for better or considerably, spectacularly worse.

Rambo

Your partner doesn't talk much, doesn't need to, and will have assessed every threat in your immediate environment before you've finished your first sentence. John Rambo is not a man of plans or politics — he is a force of nature shaped by survival, loyalty, and a capacity for endurance that goes beyond anything training can produce. He will not leave you behind. He has never left anyone behind who deserved to come home. What you get with Rambo is the most capable, most quietly ferocious partner imaginable — one who has been through things that would have broken anyone else, and who chose to keep going anyway. You'll never need to ask if he has your back. You'll just know.

James Bond

Your partner will arrive perfectly dressed, perfectly briefed, and with a cover story so convincing it'll take you a moment to remember what's actually true. James Bond is the most professionally dangerous person in any room he enters — and the most disarmingly charming, which is the point. He operates in a world of layers, where nothing is what it appears and every advantage is used without apology. You'll never be bored. You'll occasionally be furious. But when it matters — when the mission is genuinely on the line and the margin for error has collapsed to nothing — Bond is exactly the partner you want. He has survived things that have no business being survivable. He does it with style. That is not nothing.

Indiana Jones

Your partner will know the history, the language, the cultural context, and exactly why the thing everyone else is ignoring is actually the most important thing in the room. Indiana Jones is brilliant, reckless, and occasionally impossible — but he is also one of the most resourceful, most genuinely knowledgeable partners you could find yourself beside. He approaches every situation with a scholar's eye and a brawler's instinct, which is an unusual combination and a remarkably effective one. He hates snakes and gets personally attached to objects of historical significance, both of which will slow you down at least once. It doesn't matter. What Indy brings is irreplaceable — and the adventures you'll have together will be the kind people write books about. Assuming you survive them.

John McClane

Your partner was not supposed to be here. He does not have the right equipment, the right information, or anything approaching the right odds. He has a sarcastic remark and an absolute refusal to accept that the situation is as bad as it looks. John McClane is the greatest accidental hero in the history of action cinema — a man whose superpower is stubbornness, whose contingency plan is improvisation, and whose capacity to absorb punishment and keep moving would be alarming if it weren't so useful. He will complain the entire time. He will make it significantly more chaotic than it needed to be. And he will absolutely, unconditionally, without question come through when it counts. Yippee-ki-yay.

Ethan Hunt

Your partner has already run seventeen scenarios by the time you've finished reading the briefing, and the plan he's settled on involves at least two things that should be physically impossible. Ethan Hunt operates at the absolute edge of human capability — technically, physically, and intellectually — and he brings the same relentless precision to protecting his partners that he brings to dismantling organisations that shouldn't exist. He is not easy to know and he will never fully tell you everything. But he will carry the weight of the mission so completely, so absolutely, that your job is simply to trust him — and the remarkable thing is that trusting him always turns out to be the right call. The mission will be impossible. He will complete it anyway.

↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ

'Hijack' (2023–Present)

Image via Apple TV

While I'd recommend skipping Season 2 altogether, Hijack Season 1 is an intense journey through its seven episodes. Most of the action takes place in a plane high in the skies as corporate negotiator Sam Nelson (Idris Elba) tries to manage hijackers making demands and becoming increasingly violent. He uses his boardroom skills to keep things calm in the air while looking for how to get in touch with officials on the ground and let them know what's going on. Fail to do so, and they might very well shoot the plane down to save lives.

Hijack has twists and turns and a compelling story that takes you back and forth with Sam on the plane and a team on the ground led by DCI Zahra Gahfoor (Archie Panjabi). Season 2 continues the story with Sam, but it seems oddly forced and nonsensical. That said, if you like Season 1 and have time to watch more, check it out while you wait.

'24' (2001–2014)

Image via FOX

Going all the way back to the early 2000s, it's tough to imagine that 24 premiered 25 years ago. Every season of the action thriller has exactly 24 hours, every episode covering a real-time hour in the day (and night) of Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland). He's a senior agent for the fictional Counter Terrorist Unit (CTU) whose job is to go out on the field and stop terrorist threats the public doesn't even know exist.

It's action-packed with lots of twists and turns, politically driven stories, and an exploration of morality. The split screen format, the ticking clock, and the intensity of every minute of every episode all create a level of excitement for every episode. While you'd think the plot feels like it moves too slowly, it's anything but. There's never a dull moment in 24, one of the best political thriller shows of all time, and the stories will leave you hooked every season.

'Bodyguard' (2018)

Image via BBC

If you want a tight story that you can either binge in one night or spread out weekly, Bodyguard is a good option. Though you'll have trouble trying not to power through all six episodes at once. The politically charged thriller centers around PS David Budd (Richard Madden), who has returned from serving and is assigned to work as personal security for the home secretary Julia Montague (Keeley Hawes). He suffers from PTSD, his family has fallen apart, and he despises Montague's views, including her opinion on public surveillance. But all that is tossed aside when danger strikes, and Budd must spring into action.

It's fast-paced at times, the story slow-moving in others. But Bodyguard will keep you invested the whole way through. It's like a season of Reacher compartmentalized in fewer episodes with just as much action, and a protagonist with as much past trauma.

'Person of Interest' (2011–2016)

Image via CBS

Less graphic and violent and slower-moving with more of a sci-fi slant in its later seasons, Person of Interest is one of those older network procedurals that's worth watching if you missed it. There's a lot to get through with five seasons and 103 episodes, but former Special Forces soldier and CIA operative John Reese (Jim Caviezel) is just as closed off and skilled as Reacher, and you'll be rooting for him just the same.

Like Reacher, he fights to stop bad guys in their tracks, but he does so with help from an AI machine built by Harold Finch (Michael Emerson) that can determine victims and perpetrators of a pending crime but doesn't know who's who. Person of Interest is one of the most interesting procedurals to tackle the moral, ethical, and technological questions about the use of AI in fighting crime. Executive produced in part by J. J. Abrams and created by Jonathan Nolan, the show has a similar movie feel to Reacher that you'll adore.

'Cross' (2024–Present)

Image via Prime Video

Another Prime Video gem, Cross follows Alex Cross (Aldis Hodge), a police detective and forensic psychologist tackling crime in Washington while grieving the loss of his wife. Like Reacher, the character is based on one from a book, James Patterson's Alex Cross series. Also, like Reacher, Cross isn't just brawn, he's brains, too.

The crime thriller is intense with a single case in each season, just like Reacher, though both cases so far in this show have focused on serial killers. Cross injects topics of race, gender, and morality into the plot, too, adding complex layers as Cross tries to reason with killers that Reacher would be more likely to kill on the spot. He's like a slightly held back version of Reacher. But make no mistake, Cross isn't someone you'd want to, well, cross, either.

'Neagley' (2026–Present)

Image via Prime Video

The obvious watch while you wait for the next season of Reacher is Neagley. This action crime series was one of the most anticipated new action shows this year. It's a spin-off of the show that centers around the character Frances Neagley (Maria Sten), a member of Reacher's old military team and his most trusted confidante. Neagley appears frequently in Reacher, and he makes a guest appearance in this show, too. But the spotlight shines on her.

We learn more about Neagley's backstory and follow her work as a private investigator as she looks into the death of a childhood friend. The series received rave reviews, earning a 94% Rotten Tomatoes critics score. Its success proves that while Reacher is the star, Neagley is a breakout character from the show, too. There's no official word on a second season just but, but Neagley could be part of a beautiful expansion of the Reacher universe.

Neagley

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  Greyston Holt

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  Maria Sten

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